


one of them

by Chains_and_Pasta



Category: Lost
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Branding, Burning, Gen, Hurt, Interrogation, Whump, bamboo torture, lost s2 ep14
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2018-05-16
Packaged: 2019-05-08 00:23:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14682594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chains_and_Pasta/pseuds/Chains_and_Pasta
Summary: Henry underestimates the lengths Locke will go to to get answers out of him.





	one of them

He said his name was ‘Henry Gale’. 

But Sayid knew he was lying. 

They had found him in a net on the outskirts of their camp, and when he had taken him back to console with the others what to do about him, they decided an interrogation was in order. 

Sayid had beaten him, that was for sure. And they were all pretty positive he was lying, but still, he stuck to his story. His name was Henry Gale, and he was allegedly from minnesota, where he decided to travel across the world with his wife, who had conveniently died before they had found him. Sayid, and Locke, one of the only other people that knew about Henry, the other being Jack, were still convinced Henry was lying. Jack held out though, suggesting to Sayid that beating him wasn’t going to do anything. 

“What will we tell the others if we let him go? What will we tell Charlie? Or Claire?” 

“We don’t know he’s one of them, Sayid.” 

“How can you be so sure?” 

“Guys,” Locke interrupted, “the point is, if he is one of them, we need to do something about it.” 

“And what do you suggest we do?” Jack argued back. 

“I’m sure Sayid and I can figure something out.” 

* * *

 

The next day, the two of them stood outside the hatch door, where they were keeping Henry, trying to convince themselves they were doing the right thing. 

Locke had suggested they tie him up and leave him up in the jungle. No food. No water. And just leave him there until he decides to talk or starve. And although Sayid had to agree it just might work, there was always the chance that the ‘Others’, either Henry’s people, or members of their flight, would find him tied up out there. And, well, neither situation would end all that great. 

But, of course eventually they just had to make a decision, and it’s not like anything they could do would be without its flaws. So Locke opened the hatch door, and walked in on Henry, semi-conscious on the ground. His face was still stained red where he had been bleeding. along with green and blue bruises forming all over his face. Locke walked over and cut the rope keeping Henry’s hands tied to the ground, and pulled him up and out of the room with surprising ease for someone who said he used to work at a box company. 

And so the two of them took him out to the jungle, Locke leading them in front, and Henry lagging significantly behind, and Sayid bringing up the back. They didn’t have any weapons to try and stop him if he escaped, save for Locke’s hunting knife, but it was to be agreed upon that Henry was far to out of it to try and run anywhere anyway. 

They brought him to a tree in the center of a small clearing. Locke handed the rope keeping Henry in line to Sayid, who took it, letting Locke do whatever he planned to do. 

Locke produced more rope from his pockets, and wasted no time winding the rope between Henry’s legs and around his waist, before tying to other end to the tree, leaving just enough rope to let Henry sit down if he wanted to. Locke them produced something else from his pockets, a bandana, and stuck it in Henry’s mouth and tying it around his face, effectively gagging him. 

When it looked like Locke was done, sayid turned to him, “and what now?”

“now we wait.”

* * *

 

Twenty-four hours had passed since Henry had been left out there, and frankly, he was miserable. Even though he was under the shade of the tree, he could still feel the sun beating down on him through his half buttoned up shirt. But the heat was nothing compared to the humidity. It had felt that by now, any liquid he had inside of him would have baked out by now, but, miraculously, he was still sweating. The gauze pad on his shoulder covering the arrow wound felt disgusting, as it was saturated with a mixture of sweat and old blood, that had hardened and turned brown. Really it was only a matter of time before it got infected, but there was nothing he could do about it now. 

Not long after, Henry saw Locke amerge from the clearing, carrying a small bundle of sticks, and a few other things he couldn’t exactly see. Henry glanced at him, a look of compete miserable fear across his face. 

“Hello Henry.” Locke sat down across from him a few feet away.

Henry lifted his head to look at locke, who reached over to pull the gag out of Henry’s mouth. Henry flinched away, spitting, trying to get the taste of the old fabric out of his mouth. 

“Ready to talk?” 

“I-I don’t know what you want from me, I’ve already told you everything.” 

“Everything?” Locke was hunched over his small pile of sticks, working on building them up in a sort of stack. Henry could tell he wasn’t paying attention, but he didn’t care. 

“I told you I’m not who you think I am. I didn’t do anything.” 

Locke continued to build up his sticks, still not looking up at Henry, before pulling out a little match box from his pocket. He took one match out and struck it on a rock, using it to lit the pile of sticks. “You would have had to do something to get that hole in your shoulder.” Locke guestered to Henry’s right arm, where the dirty arrow-wound was. 

“It was a misunderstanding.” Henry groaned, “They thought I was someone else.” the growing fire lit up the undergrowth beside them in a warm glow, highlighting the dark circles underneath both of their eyes.

“Must have been quite the misunderstanding.” 

Locke took the time to slide three pieces of silverware into the fire while Henry wasn’t looking, just far in enough so the fire never touched the handels. 

“I don’t know what else you want from me.”

Locke finally looked up at Henry, “Well, henry, I want to know why everyone on this island thinks you’re one of them.” 

“I-I.” Henry leaned his head back against the tree and squeezed his eyes shut. “I already told you I wasn’t one of them.”

“I know what you told me,” Locke poked at the fire using another stick, “I want to know the truth.” 

“That is the truth.” 

“Then how come I just don’t believe you?” 

Several tense moments past consisting of Henry avoiding eye contact while Locke waited for him to answer his question.  After deciding that that was all Henry was going to say unprompted, Locke took one of the pieces of silverware form the fire, and without hesitation, stuck the glowing-red end of it to Henry’s chest, just below his ribs. 

Henry let out a scream that quickly dissipated into a hiss that sounded pretty similar to the sound his burning flesh made. 

“How did you really get to this island?” Locke said loud enough to be heard over the sound of burning skin.

“I-I told you, I crashed months ago” henry seized, his eyes squeezed shut as he waited for the pain to go away. 

Locke grabbed another iron from the fire, dropping the old one on the ground. He said nothing, pressing the metal to the side of Henry’s neck. Henry cried out again, jerking his head away from the metal. 

When that one cooled down, Locke grabbed the last handle and stuck it to Henry’s arm, “why are you on this island?” 

“I don’t know anymore than you do” Henry cried out again, tearing up as he felt his skin melt away.   


Locke pulled the spoon away and threw it into the brush before walking out of the clearing, leaving Henry alone with the smoldering fire. 

* * *

 

“What are we going to do with him?”

“We’re going to get answers out of him, Jack.” Locke stood in the kitchen of the hatch, drying clean dishes with an old hand towel and putting them away. 

“And how are we going to do that? Shoot him? Burn him? Incase you haven’t noticed, nothing we’ve tried so far has worked.”

“Then we'll just have to try harder.” 

“Yeah? And what do you suggest?”

“Do you remember where that bamboo field is?” 

* * *

 

Henry woke up, dizzy and disoriented. He couldn’t tell if the bright lights at the sides of his vision was early morning sun or a product of being just on the edge of consciousness. It took him a minute to realized where he was, lying on the damp ground surrounded by bamboo stalks. He felt the tug of rope pulling at his wrists and legs, all in different directions. 

“Good morning, Henry.” Locke sat on the edge of the clearing, just out of Henry’s sight. 

“Wh-what’s….” Henry trailed off, too tired to finish his sentence. 

“Well, Jack and I decided we weren't going to wait any longer for you to decide if you were going to answer our questions, or die out here. But now, luckily for us, we’ve found a way to ‘speed up’ your decision making process.” Locke paused long enough to kick one of the budding bamboo plants positioned under Henry’s upper-arm. “Wait too long, and the bamboo growing under you will impale you in less than a day.” Henry made no effort to undo the ropes, or even beg to be let go. He simply laid against the ground and let his eyes shut again, likely not willingly, as if he hadn’t heard Locke’s warning at all.

* * *

 

An hour and a half later, Henry woke up again, feeling the jagged edges of the bamboo lightly prodding his arms and legs. It took him a minute to remember where he was, and why he was there, before remembering what he had been told. He didn’t have to think long about where Locke, as as soon as he tried to move away from the bamboo, he could hear Locke’s voice coming from somewhere behind him. 

“They grow pretty fast, don’t they?” 

“You don’t know w-what you’re doing.” 

“Then tell me, what  _ am _ I doing?”

“You can’t kill me, I’m not a bad person.”

“Who said anything about killing you?”

* * *

 

A half hour later, the rough, uneven points began to shred his skin and muscle in a vile way. Leaving large punctures wounds across Henry’s skin. The pain was edging on unbearable as tears creeped into his eyes and he tried to keep perfectly still. The only other thing he could feel was the slow trickle of blood dripping down his arms and legs. 

Henry tried to think of a way out, something so they’d let him go. This had gone to far, he’d never anticipated they were going to impale him. 

He was sure Locke was still nearby, waiting for Henry to crack. And it had worked. 

Leaning against a tree, Locke was cleaning off one of his many hunting knives when he heard Henry calling for him. He got up, and made his way to the clearing Henry was only a few feet away. 

“Yes?” Locke looked expectantly at Henry, even though he knew he couldn’t see him.

“I’ll tell you anything you want to know.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I cannot think of anything Locke does besides show up random places ominously and play with his knives


End file.
